Emma Thompson biography

Emma Thompson was born in Paddington, England. Acting was in her blood as her father was a stage director and her mother was an actress. Emma started acting while she was still a child and later, when she was taking an English Literature degree at Cambridge, she wrote, directed, and produced the college's first all-female comedy revue.

After graduation, Emma took that comedic sensibility to various comedy clubs around London with her own stand-up act that led to a comedy series on British television. She met her (now ex) husband, actor-director Kenneth Branagh, when she joined his Renaissance Theatre Company. They married a year later but it ended in divorce in 1995 after Emma discovered he was having an affair with Helena Bonham Carter.

And yes, she says it's true that she keeps the Academy Award she won for her role in the Merchant Ivory production Howards End (1992) in the bathroom of her London house. But at least now it has company as she also won a second Oscar, this time for Best Screenplay for Sense and Sensibility (1995). Her take on whether she's an anomaly or not in the Hollywood food chain is this: "There are a lot of highly intelligent women who can act. There are not too many roles to fill—that's the problem."

More recently, Emma starred in the drama The Children Act(2018) as a high court judge who must preside over a difficult case involving a sick teenage boy. She also returned to theaters in the satirical comedy film Johnny English Strikes Again(2018) where she appeared alongside Rowan Atkinson.

Emma married second husband, co-star Greg Wise, on July 29, 2003. Together they have two daughters, Gaia Romilly Wise and Tindyebwa Agaba Wise.